10 Best Educational Toys

“Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures.” -L. Drachman

I recently posted a video of our son playing with some educational toys and many friends wanted to know where I got them and which ones we use. So without further adieu, I give you the 10 best educational toys (ages 0-5).

1.) Human Body Play Sets: Our son has become very intrigued with the human body and he is loving these human body play sets. This Melissa & Doug one is great for ages two and older (although the box says 36 months and up, my daughter loves it and she is only two.

And for the slightly more advanced learner we LOVE this Janod body set, which breaks down the body into organs, muscles, bones and skin.

2.) Blocks: The Tegu magnetic blocks are great for stacking, creating shapes, using your imagination to make animals &/or objects and it is a bonus that you can throw them in your mom purse to keep little hands busy when out to dinner!

3.) Videos: Hands down if you want your child to start learning another language, or maybe your little one has a speech delay, then the Signing Time videos are amazing!! Our kids have LOVED them! There is Baby Signing Time which is great for ages 0 and up.

There is also Signing Time for slightly older kids (although our kiddos watched these at about 1 year). It is totally worth the investment.

4.) Puzzles: Puzzles are huge in our home. They promote critical thinking, fine motor skills, patience and is a great activity for the entire family. Melissa & Doug makes great puzzles for the younger ones. Here our some of our favorites…

For the baby this animal puzzle.For the slightly older kiddo this alphabet puzzle is great!This see and spell puzzle is perfect for the preschooler.And for the big kid this Eeboo puzzle is a great stocking stuffer as well as great for throwing in a backpack or in mom’s purse! I really like this brand, they have some super cute puzzles for all ages!

5.) Alphabet Foam Bath Letters: Keep learning fun in the tub with these numbers and letters. At first we would just work on letter recognition, now we are practicing spelling, putting letters in order as well as going over colors.

6.) Tablet: We all know kids love to play with buttons and technology, but as parents we try to avoid handing over the iPad all the time. So we found this V-tech tablet that is super interactive and the kids love it.

7.) Books: We LOVE to read and I could probably do an entire post on just our favorite books, but here are a few: For ages 0-2 the 100 word book is perfect. This helps just recognizing objects, practicing vocabulary, etc..

9.) Learning Tower: You might wonder how this stool is “educational,” but it allows kids to come up to your height in the kitchen without the fear of falling off a chair so they can help you cook, bake, even do kitchen type experiments. This has been one of the best things we have in our house for the kids! You can buy a really expensive one, or you can make this IKEA hack one for way less.

10.) Our favorite toy that you may argue is not educational, but I will gladly disagree are the Snow balls! These are the best ever!!! Put them in a bucket labeled “Snow Balls” and use them as a counting tool, throwing them in the bucket one at a time. Practice gross motor skills by learning to hit a moving target. Come on folks, I guarantee everyone will want to play with these! They are soft so that they don’t hurt and I’m not gonna lie it helps get out some frustration with your kids or even your spouse!;) If you only buy one thing off this list, it needs to be these!And there you have it folks, the 10 Best Educational Toys. Happy Shopping! Oh and one last thing, hands down the best educational Utube channel is “Kids Learning Tube.” We watch their videos all the time and I learn just as much as the kids. My son’s obsession with the organs only grew when he realized he could sing songs about the heart, lungs and stomach. So go check them out!